I would never say that I am glad that I have diabetes, because no matter what, it’s still diabetes. However, I am thankful for how my life has turned out because of being diagnosed with diabetes. Before I get into the “I Can” portion of this, I want to provide a little background for that story.
After I was diagnosed, I lived back at home for about a year before deciding that I was going to go to college in south Florida near the beach. If I was never diagnosed, I would have never made this decision because I was happy where I was at. However, the diagnosis made me feel like I need to do something fun with my life and live life to the fullest, so off to south Florida I went…….and then I met Amanda, who is now my wife and the mother to my beautiful daughter.
None of this would have happened without being diagnosed. I am not a believer in “things happen for a reason” but I do know that without diabetes, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Now, for the I Can part of this. Growing up, I always knew that I wanted to own my own business, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to be my own boss. After being diagnosed and learning the ins and outs of insurance and knowing that getting insurance as a T1 was going to be nearly impossible, I thought that there was no way that I could own a business.
Well, guess what, I DO own my own business, a quite successful one at that. I DO have insurance. I even got my own diabetes life insurance policy as well, something I was worried about not having after not having an employer based one.
That’s right! You heard me! Life insurance for diabetics is obtainable, and more affordable then you can imagine. I had personally read horror stories from others, while trying to obtain diabetic life insurance. Like the old phrase, don’t believe everything you read on the internet. After speaking with some different agents and and agencies, I finally found one company that not only specializes in working with diabetics, but they ONLY work with diabetics! Getting life insurance for type 1 diabetics is not as challenging as I thought and the application process was pretty simple.
So you CAN own your own business with Type 1 Diabetes. 10 years ago around diagnosis, I was discouraged and didn’t think that I would be able to do this. I thought that I would have to work for someone else just so I could have healthcare coverage.
Now, not only do I know that diabetes can’t stop me from owning my own business, I owe diabetes a thank you for helping me start my own business!